Sarah Logan Wister Starr (1873 - August 21, 1956) was a prominent member of Philadelphia society in the early 1900s and a dedicated humanitarian.
Named after her grandmother, Sarah Logan Fisher, Wister was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. Her father, John Wister, was descended from the wealthy Wisters of Philadelphia, and her grandmother was descended from James Logan, secretary to William Penn.
Sarah had three sisters. The first, Jane Boas, died in 1869 at age three before the others were born. Elizabeth was born next, followed by Sarah and the youngest, Margaret. Even as a young woman, Sarah was dignified and proper and "held high the banner of family morality." She was seen as the opposite of wild and unpredictable Elizabeth.[ citation needed ]
In 1901, 28-year-old Sarah married James Starr, a mining official also descended from James Logan. Starr, an 1891 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania who also earned a degree in Mining Engineering the following year from Towne Scientific School, was known for his collection of Chinese stamps. [1]
Mary Meigs, Sarah’s niece, describes Sarah’s and Elizabeth’s choices in husbands:
“They selected for husbands, businessmen who were as much alike as Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Their names were Stewart and Jim, both had benevolent faces and handlebar moustaches, and, at parties, chewed on their cigars and listened to their wives… ‘Jim of course never speaks if he can help it…speaking is against his principles’… ‘Jim actually interrupts!’ But his little flare of rebellion was quickly extinguished and I remember only his good-natured silences while Aunt Sarah’s tongue reeled out like a string with a colourful kite dancing at the end. [2]
Later, Meigs describes Sarah’s marriage as "dreary…like a man and wife yoked together like a couple of oxen, plodding along in gloomy silence or to the sound of a monologue." [3]
She and James are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Section G, Plot 202 & 204
After her mother died in 1922, Sarah received ownership of the Belfield Estate, a Philadelphia homestead that had been passed down through the Wister family for years, and which had once been owned by the artist Charles Willson Peale. Elizabeth's anger at not receiving Belfield led to a feud between the two sisters that lasted for 30 years, until the death of Sarah’s husband brought them partially back together.
Sarah made several changes to the estate. Telephone and electricity were added via underground wires, so as not to disturb the garden. Upon the opening of nearby 20th Street, a restraining wall 900 feet long and in some places 14 feet high was built to provide security and protection from heavy traffic and passersby. James added water and rock gardens. Sarah herself added a garden of 100 hybrid tea roses. After a trip to China in 1933, they reworked a section of the garden in Chinese style. “A plastered stone wall, separated by a tiny hip roof and an entrance to it is made through a large vase-shaped gate, on one side of which appears, in red, the Chinese characters which denote the year, month, and day of its erection.” [4] The garden also holds an orange and a lemon tree taken from the orangery of Butler Place when Owen Wister sold it. Belfield Estate is now part of La Salle University’s campus.
From 1921-41, Wister served as president of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she set up a $300,000 Wister Fund in honor of her parents. [5] The college used the money to add buildings on the site purchased in 1953 at Falls of Schuylkill.
She was the president of the Colonial Dames for many years, as well as president of the Women’s Permanent Emergency Association of Germantown, which was founded more than 60 years earlier by her grandmother, and revived during World War II.
She accepted honorary degrees from Ursinus College in 1933 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1941.
She was an Associate Trustee of the Board of Libraries at Penn. She founded the Zoe Valley Library at Chester, Nova Scotia, where her family had summered since 1874.
She also served as the State Vice-Chairman of the World War I-era National League for Woman's Services, as well as the chairman of the Germantown Branch. She raised more than $2 million for the relief of Belgian children. She was also chosen the chairman of the Women’s Committee of the Liberty Loan for the Federal Reserve District.
With Frances Anne Wister and her cousin Anne Wister, she helped produce a magazine called "The Sparrow." [5] In June 1917, she led the first loan parade for the Liberty Loan campaign, where several hundred women marched from the Woman’s Club of Germantown to the grounds of the Germantown Academy. [6] For the first time, women had charge of booths on the streets where loan subscriptions were received. In 1937, she was an emissary of Pennsylvania Tercentenary Commission of Sweden and was later honored there by the King. [7]
Wister was also a former chairman of the Germantown Branch of the Civic Club, and belonged to the Acron Club, the Print Club, Sedgely Club, Germantown Historical Society, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, The Philadelphia Assembly, Athenaeum Society, Fountain Society and the Society for the Preservation of Landmarks.
In 1938, she wrote an article, “History of Stenton”, recording the genealogy of those who lived on the Logan family estate and relates stories told by her grandmother and other relatives. She also wrote "History of Belfield", a brief pamphlet about the estate since Peale's time. Her papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania include manuscripts of talks she gave on historical topics, particularly from the Colonial Period.
Germantown is an area in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded by Palatine, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is about six miles northwest from the city center, now consists of two neighborhoods: 'Germantown' and 'East Germantown'.
Owen Wister was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing The Virginian and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant.
Charles Willson Peale was an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician, and naturalist.
La Salle University is a private, Catholic university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The university was founded in 1863 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and named for St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle.
George Logan was an American physician, farmer, legislator and politician from Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. He served in the Pennsylvania state legislature and represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.
Ogontz/Belfield is a neighborhood in Upper Northern Philadelphia that is located adjacent to West Oak Lane, East Germantown, Logan, and Fern Rock, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
West Oak Lane is a neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The neighborhood was developed primarily between the early 1920s and late 1930s, with the areas near to Cedarbrook constructed after World War II. At the northeast corner of Limekiln Pike and Washington Lane was the site of the Cedar Park Inn, a historic tavern built in the early 19th century, which was torn down sometime after 1931 as the neighborhood was being fully developed.
Samuel Miles was an American military officer and politician, as well as an influential businessman and politician, active in Pennsylvania before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War.
Logan is a neighborhood in the upper North Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The majority of the neighborhood falls within the 19141 zip code, but some of it falls within 19140. The neighborhood is sometimes confused with the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia. Olney Avenue extends from both the Olney and Logan neighborhoods of the city. The Olney Transportation Center is located in Logan.
Wingohocking Creek was once a major tributary of another Philadelphia, Pennsylvania stream, Frankford Creek, which flows into the Delaware River. Frankford Creek was formed by the confluence of Wingohocking Creek and Tacony Creek. Since Wingohocking Creek is now obliterated, having been piped underground in the late 19th century, it can be confusing to look at a modern map, which shows Tacony Creek suddenly changing names "in the middle of the stream," so to speak, and becoming Frankford Creek. The point at which the name changes is near the present intersection of I and Ramona Streets, where the Wingohocking once joined the Tacony to form the Frankford Creek. What was once a major stream and the site of many mills and factories has been completely wiped off the map—all but the city's sewer maps, that is. The outlet of the Wingohocking Sewer is the largest in the Philadelphia sewer system, about 24 feet (7.3 m) high. It is visible from various points in the Juniata neighborhood and the adjoining golf course.
Stenton, also known as the James Logan Home, was the country home of James Logan, the first Mayor of Philadelphia and Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court during the colonial-era governance of the Province of Pennsylvania. The home is located at 4601 North 18th Street in the Logan neighborhood of North Philadelphia.
Grumblethorpe was the home of the Wister family in the present-day Germantown section of Philadelphia, who lived there for over 160 years. It was built in 1744 as a summer residence, but it became the family's year-round residence in 1793. It is a museum, part of the Colonial Germantown Historic District.
Anna Claypoole Peale was an American painter who specialized in portrait miniatures on ivory and still lifes. She and her sister, Sarah Miriam Peale, were the first women elected academicians of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
John Caspar Wister was one of the United States' most highly honored horticulturists.
Belfield, also known as the Charles Willson Peale House, was the home of Charles Willson Peale from 1810 to 1826, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. The Belfield Estate was a 104-acre (42 ha) area of land in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, much of which is now a part of La Salle University’s campus.
Sarah Miriam Peale was an American portrait painter, considered the first American woman to succeed as a professional artist. One of a family of artists of whom her uncle Charles Willson Peale was the most illustrious, Sarah Peale painted portraits mainly of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. notables, politicians, and military figures. Lafayette sat for her four times.
Sarah Wister was a girl who lived in the Province of Pennsylvania during the American Revolution who authored Sally Wister's Journal. Written when she was 16-years-old; it is a firsthand account of life in the nearby countryside during the British occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War in 1777 and 1778.
Mary "Polly" Norris Dickinson was an early American land and estate owner and manager. She is known for her ownership of one of the largest libraries in the American colonies, her participation in political thought of the time, and her presence in or near events of the Constitutional Convention, including her marriage to Framer John Dickinson, one of the early drafters of the Constitution and one of its signers on behalf of the colony of Delaware. They bequeathed much of their combined library to the first college founded in the new United States. The college was originally named "John and Mary's College", by Benjamin Rush, for Norris Dickinson and her husband and is now called Dickinson College.
Deborah Norris Logan was an American Quaker historian and memoirist, and wife of politician George Logan.
Isaiah Quinby Lukens was an American clockmaker, gunsmith, machinist, and inventor from southeastern Pennsylvania. He was a founding member and first vice president of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. He was elected to membership in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in June 1812, where he served as curator for multiple decades beginning in 1813. In 1820, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.